German lawmakers approved new measures Thursday to rein in record coronavirus infections after the head of Germany’s disease control agency warned the country could face a “really terrible Christmas.”
The measures passed in the Bundestag with votes from the centre-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats. The three parties are currently negotiating to form a new government.
The legislation includes requirements for employees to prove they are vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 or have tested negative for the virus in order to access communal workplaces. They still need to be approved by Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.
Outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats had wanted to extend existing rules that served as the basis for numerous national and state-wide restrictions. Due to expire this month, the rules were criticized for marginalizing parliament despite its central role in the German political system.
Potential for a ‘terrible Christmas’
Germany’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 65,371 new daily cases, shattering the previous 24-hour record and continuing an upward trend that experts have warned about for weeks.
“We are currently heading toward a serious emergency,” institute director Lothar Wieler said during an online debate late Wednesday. “We are going to have a really terrible Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now.”
Wieler said Germany needs to increase its COVID-19 vaccination rate, which now stands at 67.7 per cent, to significantly above 75 per cent.
A man waited at the reception of a COVID-19 testing station in Duisburg, western Germany, last week as the country faced increasing coronavirus case numbers. Cases are still rising, prompting a stern warning from a senior health official. (Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images)
The eastern state of Saxony, which at 57.6 per cent has the country’s lowest immunization rate, is poised to impose a limited lockdown in response to soaring case numbers.
Gov. Michael Kretschmer said the state government would decide on a “hard and clear wave-breaker” Friday lasting two to three weeks.
Official figures show Saxony had more than 761 newly confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past week, the highest infection rate in Germany.
Germany’s independent vaccine advisory panel said Thursday that it recommends booster shots for all people over 18. But it said people who are over 70, at risk for other reasons or who haven’t received any vaccine yet should be prioritized.
Wieler warned that hospitals across Germany are struggling to find beds for COVID-19 patients and those with other illnesses.
Germany is far from the only country in Europe dealing with increasing caseloads and worry over health systems.
Officials in Slovakia, for instance, announced they will impose stricter measures for people who have not been vaccinated against coronavirus amid a surge in infections and hospital admissions that is stretching the health system, on Thursday.
“It is a lockdown for the unvaccinated,” Prime Minister Eduard Heger told a news conference.
The Czech government also approved new coronavirus restrictions that specifically target unvaccinated people amid a record surge of infections.
Health Minister Adam Vojtech said that most unvaccinated people will no longer be allowed to show negative coronavirus test results in order to attend public events, go to bars and restaurants, visit hairdressers, museums and use hotels.
Only people who are vaccinated and those who have recovered from COVID-19 will remain eligible. There are exceptions for teenagers aged 12 to 18, people whose medical condition doesn’t allow vaccination and people who have received one shot of a vaccine.
Vojtech said the goal of the measures that will come into force on Monday is to motivate people to get vaccinated.
-From The Associated Press, last updated at 9:30 a.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | Ottawa to drop molecular test requirement for short foreign trips, sources say:
Ottawa to drop PCR test requirement for short foreign trips: sources
14 hours ago
Sources have told CBC News that the federal government will announce that fully vaccinated Canadians won’t need to produce a negative PCR test on their return if they’ve been out of the country for 72 hours or less. 1:55
What’s happening around the world
Medics wearing special protective suits treat a patient with the novel coronavirus at an intensive care unit of a hospital in Kalach-on-Don, Russia, over the weekend. (Alexander Kulikov/The Associated Press)
As of early Thursday morning, more than 255.1 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.1 million.
In Europe, coronavirus deaths in Russia have hit record highs for the second straight day. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported Thursday that 1,251 people died of COVID-19 since the day before. The previous record of 1,247 deaths was recorded Wednesday.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan’s new stimulus package will include record spending of about $488 billion US due to huge payouts to cushion COVID-19’s economic blow, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
South Korea reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic as hundreds of thousands of masked students flocked to schools on Thursday for the country’s highly competitive college entrance exam amid growing concerns about the delta-driven spread.
About 509,000 students were taking the one-day exam at 1,395 sites across the nation, including hospitals and shelters.
The annual exam is crucial in the education-obsessed country, where careers, social standings and even marriage prospects greatly depend on which university a person attends.
South Korean students wait for the start of the College Scholastic Ability Test at a high school in Seoul on Thursday. About 510,000 high school seniors and graduates across the country are expected to take the annual highly competitive university entrance exam. (Chung Sung-Jun/The Associated Press)
Students were required to have their temperatures taken before entering classrooms, and those with fevers were sent to separate testing areas. The Education Ministry said that 68 infected students and 105 others in self-quarantine took the hours-long test in isolation.
In the Americas, the U.S. government will pay drugmaker Pfizer $5.29 billion for 10 million courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment if regulators approve it. Pfizer asked U.S. regulators on Tuesday to authorize the experimental pill, which has been shown to significantly cut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths among people with coronavirus infections.
The pharmaceutical giant reported earlier this month that its pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89 per cent among high-risk adults who had early symptoms of COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is already reviewing a competing pill from Merck and will hold a public meeting on it later this month.
Brazil registered 11,977 new coronavirus cases and 373 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
In Africa, Nigeria’s economy grew just over four per cent in the third quarter, the statistics office said, lifted by higher oil prices, as the country targets mass vaccination from this month.
In the Middle East, Iran on Wednesday reported 6,251 new cases of COVID-19 and 125 additional deaths.
-From Reuters, The Associated Press and CBC News, last updated at 7:50 a.m. ET
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
